7% online rate ‘hurts’

In his 2016/2017 Budget presentation, Imbert said the tax will be imposed on purchases that arrive in the country through the courier companies or are brought in directly by individuals via air freight.

Imbert first announced the Government’s intention to impose this new tax in April during the Mid- Year Review of the 2016 Budget in Parliament. At that time, the tax was expected to take effect in September.

Once the news of the online tax spread, a few people took to social media to express their concerns.

“Look how they going an(d) mash up budding entrepreneurs with that online tax...this one I not agreeing with,” one woman said.

One young businessman felt hurt by the additional tax he would have to pay.

“It really hurts me to know that I have to pay 20 percent or more customs and excise fee, 12.5 percent VAT, seven percent online shopping tax newly implemented. Also the cost of the item initially and the very expensive skybox fees...this is such a shame I swear,” he said.

A woman, who gave her name as Linda, said she understood the reason for the tax but hoped it meant that government would look at price control.

“The reasons people go online in the first place is because the items are a lot cheaper. The local stores really overcharge for many things so there really needs to be a monitoring system so that consumers would not be taken advantage of and I am genuinely scared to see what the prices are going to be like now when they know less people would shop online because of this tax,” she said.

Linda said the bulk of her online shopping happens during the Christmas period but now her shopping would have to be done before October 20.

“I’ll have to shop now because that seven percent tax would hit me and many people pretty hard,” she said. Imbert, in his presentation, said there are 31 courier companies registered and bonded in Trinidad and Tobago and it is estimated that the value of packages cleared by those courier companies exceeds $1 billion a year. He said the new tax will generate approximately $70 million in additional revenue.